It’s been a good week!

Happy Hump Day, Everyone! I hope your week is going great so far.

My Apple stock split on Monday and has been going up! So that’s a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really not good at the stock market like my dad. He’s a whiz at it. And I only had one share to begin with, but…It’s kinda cool! I’ve made $30 so far. 🙂 Well, in all actuality, $10, because it cost me a $10 broker’s fee to buy it and will cost me $10 to sell it, so I think I’ll hold onto it for a while. 🙂

And in other news…I won a door prize grab bag in the Writer’s Weekly Spring 24 hour contest! I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the last contest, I didn’t even get a mention. So I am honored and excited! If you haven’t heard of Writer’s Weekly and the 24 hour short story contest, check it out here. They hold it 4 times a year and the next one will be in July.

Catch and Release

The tethered sailboat rocks gently on the incoming tide as a full moon rises in the sky. Aaron lies back in the sand and resting his head on his clasped hands he smiles up at Cordelia. “How about a midnight swim to work off that wonderful fish and wild mushroom feast we just ate?”

“A swim? But Aaron we have no suits.”

Reaching up Aaron caresses her warm cheek. “We don’t need suits, Cordelia. There is nobody here but us and the fishes, and I don’t think the fishes will mind if we do a little skinning dipping, do you?”

Standing up he grabs her hand and pulls her to her feet. He watches her slip off her sundress before dropping his shorts.

Cordelia grins and takes off towards the water. “Race ya!” She laughs and dives in under the waves. Popping back up, she shivers. “Brr, it’s cold.”

Aaron catches up to her and pulls her close. Cupping her breast he can feel her taut nipple pressing against his palm. “What the?.”

“What? Aaron, what’s wrong?”

“Something just slipped around my ankle” Aaron drops below the surface of the water.

“Stop teasing. You just want to scare me.” Cordelia admonishes him as his head pops back up but sees the fear in his eyes as Aaron gasps for breath and then disappears under the water again. Cordelia spins around searching the dark sea water screaming out his name.

***

Aaron’s naked body flips andflops up and down like a fish out of water. He opens his mouth to suck air in, but only sucks in more of the salty water. His lungs swell until he feels his chest will burst. _So this is how it feels to drown_ Hearing a child’s voice he opens his eyes and struggles to sit up and sees an odd looking creature talking to a bigger, older, and even odder looking creature. Both have the upper body of a horse and the lower body of a fish. The older one has a pearlescent horn protruding from the center of its head that pulses and changes color as it speaks.

“Look mom, I caught a man fish. Can we have him for dinner? Please!”

Aaron looks down at the sturdy fishing line wrapped around his ankle and stands up. “Look, I don’t know who you are or what you are, but I am nobody’s dinner. And where the hell am I anyways? Am I dead?”

“You are in Unimaid City and I am Queen Whinnymer. And it saddens me that you are not dead for now we shall have to bludgeon you with a clam shell before we can filet you. Guards.”

She sighs and waves the guards back. “My son informs me that since you are not dead, it is more unimane to catch and release. So away with you!”

“Away with me? But how am I supposed to find my way back to shore?”

The queen motions to the guards. “The guards will escort you to the outskirts of our city and release you, from there you are on your own.”

***

Feeling hands pounding on his chest, Aaron coughs and sputters, spitting out water. He hears Cordelia’s gasping voice and opens his eyes.

“Aaron? Oh, God Aaron you had me so scared. Where were you? You’ve been gone for hours.”

“In Unimaid City discussing the unimane way of catch and release with the queen.”

“What? Aaron you are delirious. We need to get you to the hospital.”

Aaron wraps an arm around Cordelia’s shoulder and hugs her close. “No, I’m okay, but next time we take a vacation it’s going to be on a cattle ranch.” Looking up, Aaron sees a steer sitting on the full moon grinning down at him. In the steer’s hand is a swinging lasso. “You know becoming a vegetarian is looking better all the time. By the way, just where did those mushrooms come from anyway?”

The End

I know it still needs some work, but in my defense, it was a bad weekend for a writing contest! LOL! So now I will do some more editing to it and probably add more to it and it will go into my book of short stories.

Through the Year

(Tentative release date, August 6, 2014)

Tomorrow I will post another review, so make sure you stop back by! Till then, HUGS!